R.I.P. J Dilla / Jay Dee
Runnin’
The Pharcyde
12″ Single, 1995
I was looking through Bedroom Rockers (.pdf), a book of photos of DJs home set-ups along with short Q&A’s, a few weeks ago and one of the questions was, “What is the most precious record in your collection?” I thought about that for myself and couldn’t come up with anything. I knew it would have more to do with sentimentality than rarity but I still drew a blank until last night when I was flipping through my collection and passed my Pharcyde “Runnin’” 12″. In fairness, I couldn’t say this is my most precious record but it is definitely up near the top of the list.
This record has a special place in my heart because it was one of my first 25 or so records. Whenever I see my initials on a record (oops, I don’t do that anymore!), I know I’ve had it for a long time. [I’m slightly ashamed to say that I think I stole this record from WAMH, my college radio station; I hope they are not reading this.]
For me, it’s also the most personal, if obvious, tribute to the life of J Dilla and his incredible production style. I’ll refrain from detailing all the instrumental layers of the track but somewhere between the Stan Getz bossa nova guitar sample, the drum pattern and “1,2…2 listen here…there comes a time in every man’s life when he has to handle sh*t up on his own” this track dug deep roots in my timid 19-year-old mind.
After reading the above-linked discography I realized that J Dilla had his hands in more of the music that I love than I even knew (D’Angelo’s Voodoo, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun…). I am definitely one who can get annoyed by over-eulogizing but J Dilla deserves all of the praise that he is getting and he deserved more while he was alive.
[The “94″ on the label is the BPM not the year.]
>> songs are available for two weeks [7.0 MB]
>> songs are available for two weeks [7.0 MB]
